Monitoring water loss form fresh concrete

Desiccation of concrete before or during setting may lead to detrimental plastic shrinkage cracking in the concrete surface zone. Cracking due to plastic shrinkage is a major technological problem for any concrete, however, modern high-performance concretes are especially susceptible to this. This paper concerns in particular a new method for site measurement of evaporation from concrete surfaces in the early hardening phase. Compared to the methods used today for determination of the desiccation process in the early hardening phase, the so-called Curing Meter permits a simple, safe and accurate determination of the evaporation loss from hardening concrete and thus better possibility for preventing curing problems, including detrimental crack damage due to plastic shrinkage.